We joined the queues today to catch the lift up the Eiffel Tower. I don’t do heights well, so this was a big thing for me! The queue took about an hour and a half, but we finally got to the front. We jumped into the lift, right at the back so that I wasn’t at the glass front or sides, I was freaked out enough. Mark was telling me that the tower was no higher than the Q1 building, which I have been to the top of, but part of me thinks he was just making that up. Anyway, we got to ‘Level 2’ which is the main observation deck. I knew about then that regardless of anything, I would not be going up any higher. (Mark decided not to as well, mainly because the wait was another 90 minutes at least – so he says he will go up on our next Paris visit).
The views really were amazing, and I’ll say it again, Paris is a beautiful city. Being so high up, looking out, you could see the fabulous way it is all laid out. Parklands, boulevards, wide streets – all leading up to spectacular buildings. We spent about an hour up there, taking photos from every direction.
We decided to go and take a closer look at the Champs-Elysee and the Arc de Triomphe, so we grabbed a taxi. It dropped us about two thirds along the Champs-Elysee, and we found a very cool little Hagen-Dass café – there are no words to describe the amazing desserts on offer! Over 100 flavours of ice-creams, all combined into incredible sundaes and parfaits. We settled on a chocolate and strawberry crepe number, and consumed more sugar than we probably should in a month. It was very yummy though, and much better than my banana and chocolate one the day before.
We wandered up the Champs-Elysee, and into the Louis Vuitton store with all the beautiful people. Needless to say, I did not exit with any Vuitton luggage! A bit further along, we came to the Arc de Triomphe. It’s really an amazing structure, stuck in the middle of a big roundabout. We wandered around it, took photos of all the amazing sculptures and then sat down against the cool rock for a little break.
We found a bus stop nearby and caught a bus all the way down the Champs-Elysee (it is VERY long) to the Place de la Concorde. This is the most incredibly large ‘roundabout’ I have ever seen. It is at least one Brisbane block wide (ok, maybe I exaggerate a little, but not by much!) We took a look at the fountain, and the obelisk, and then across the concourse to the Jardin des Tuileries, which is the large parklands that lead down to the Louvre. We hung out there for a bit, and then headed back to the hotel to pack up and get ready to fly to Berlin the next day.
We wandered around the backstreets a little looking for dinner, and came across a lovely little boulangerie (bakery). I grabbed an éclair de chocolat, simply because I had obviously not had enough chocolate on our trip so far! They had this strange machine, and I had to put my money into that to pay the woman behind the counter. Like putting money into a car park machine, I put it in one coin at a time. Turns out, that’s not the way to do it in Paris! The woman laughed and said something, a few others in the store laughed and commented too, but I have no clue – so I just laughed to and said ‘merci’ a few times. It was worth it – the éclair was yummy! How can I describe French pastry, or chocolate – it’s so creamy, not one bit of grittiness or undissolved sugar, it’s amazingly smooth, almost like melted chocolate. It’s not overbearing, you don’t feel chocolated out, so its sweet, but far from sickly sweet.
We found a little restaurant in amongst a dozen others that looked very local and authentic. It’s always fun when you can’t read the menu. We had this fish thing for entrée, it was some sort of pickled herring, and it was just divine. It was all about the little herbs and bits and pieces that went with it that made it so amazing. The herring was cold, it had tiny onions and tiny warmed potatoes with it, and some sort of mustard seed as well. It was just so very yummy! I had the beouf (beef) which was rib steak on the bone and it had potatoes that had been fried up in onion and garlic. Mark had the fish, which had some sort of creamy lemony sort of sauce with it. His potatoes weren’t as good as mine though. We finished up with chocolate mousse (for him) and crème caramel for me. The desserts were as good as the entrées. It was a fabulous last meal in Paris.
We have both decided we love Paris and will definitely be back. The food was just unbelievable. From the bread, through to the chocolate, it was all just amazingly good. Delicate and a fabulous mix of flavours. We found the people to be lovely as well, very different to the French tourists we ran into in London. They were more than happy to help us out with different words and explanations or directions. From waitresses to bus drivers, they were all really lovely, we didn’t come across anyone who was painful at all.
We’re off to Berlin tomorrow to spend a couple of days with an old friend from Sydney, but we will definitely be back in Paris, hopefully sooner rather than later!
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